Agents even broke into Trump’s safe.
QUICK FACTS:
- Former first son Eric Trump says that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) didn’t find anything when a “large group” of agents raided former President Donald Trump’s home in Florida.
- According to an interview granted by Eric Trump, the raid was said to be for the purpose of finding documents that should have been put into the National Archives.
- It’s unknown if any documents were taken from Trump’s home, but the former president’s safe was empty and did not contain what the warrant stated the FBI was looking for.
- A report from The New York Times seemed to attempt to smooth over the event saying, “Mr. Trump delayed returning 15 boxes of the material requested by officials with the National Archives for many months, only doing so when there became a threat of action being taken to retrieve them.”
- Conservatives and Trump’s allies are calling out the Justice Department for the raid, saying it is something that “Third World countries” would engage in.
RESPONSE TO THE RAID:
- Trump responded to the raid, saying, “Nothing like this has ever happened to a President of the United States before. After working and cooperating with the relevant Government agencies, this unannounced raid on my home was not necessary or appropriate.”
- “It is prosecutorial misconduct, the weaponization of the Justice System, and an attack by Radical Left Democrats who desperately don’t want me to run for President in 2024, especially based on recent polls, and who will likewise do anything to stop Republicans and Conservatives in the upcoming Midterm Elections,” he added.
- “Such an assault could only take place in broken, Third-World Countries. Sadly, America has now become one of those Countries, corrupt at a level not seen before,” Trump said. “What is the difference between this and Watergate, where operatives broke into the Democrat National Committee? Here, in reverse, Democrats broke into the home of the 45th President of the United States.”
- U.S. Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) spoke up after the former president was seemingly targeted saying, “The FBI raid on Trump’s home tells us one thing. Failure is not an option. We must destroy the FBI. We must save America. I stand with Donald J. Trump.”
- House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy also condemned the DOJ’s actions, saying they were being used as a political tool: The Department of Justice has reached an intolerable state of weaponized politicization,” McCarthy said in a statement. “When Republicans take back the house, we will conduct immediate oversight of this department, follow the facts, and leave no stone unturned. Attorney General Garland, preserve your documents and clear your calendar.”
BACKGROUND:
- Following the Trump raid, the former president was believed to have hinted that he might run for president again in 2024.
- This caused Marc Elias, Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign general counsel to assert on social media that “the media is missing the really, really big reason why the raid today is a potential blockbuster in American politics.”
- Elias tweeted a portion of U.S. Code Title 18, Section 2071 which states “anyone “having the custody of any such record, proceeding, map, book, document, paper, or other thing, willfully and unlawfully conceals, removes, mutilates, obliterates, falsifies, or destroys the same, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both; and shall forfeit his office and be disqualified from holding any office under the United States.”
- However, some believe that other means might be used to stop Trump from running for another term, including potential attempts on his life.
